Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to personal alarms, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved personal alarm system which is carried by a clothing supporting belt.
Description of the Prior Art
The use of personally carried manually operable audible alarms is well known in the prior art. Additionally, at least one audible alarm system has been developed wherein the same is combined with a belt. More specifically, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,126, which issued to L. Loyola on July 5, 1983, wherein there is disclosed a combination belt buckle and alarm. Through the manual compression of the buckle assembly, electrical contacts are closed which operate a battery-powered alarm contained within the buckle.
While being functional for its intended purpose, it can be appreciated that the combined buckle and audible alarm of Loyola possesses the disadvantage of being somewhat difficult to activate inasmuch as a proper grasping and compression of the associated belt buckle must be undertaken or the alarm will not sound. Further, there could arise situations where an attacker would be aware of this particular type of alarm system, and the attacker could easily deactivate the system by a proper reverse movement of the belt buckle. As such, only a brief sounding of the alarm might occur which could greatly jeopardize the security of the person wearing the alarm. This is particularly true in the case of small children wherein they could be quickly overpowered by an attacker and the brief sounding of an audible alarm would most likely not attract any attention.
Accordingly, there would appear to be a need for a new and improved clothing-worn personal alarm system wherein the same could not be easily deactivated once an alarm has been sounded. In this respect, the present invention substantially addresses this need.